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The purpose of this paper is to explore and identify the areas in common between strategic quality management (SQM) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) from the literature. Studying these areas is important to develop any further connection between SQM and CSR because of both the potential for benefit to organisations and society, and in order to minimise resources needed for effective action by capitalising on synergies.

Literature review covering a broad range of publications that addresses the synergies of quality management and CSR to identify areas of commonality and thus simplify CSR implementation.

Identification of opportunities for knowledge transfer between SQM and CSR.

Synergies between SQM and CSR may offer attractive opportunities to capitalise on prior actions and learning, to enhance the value added to an organisation and the society in which it operates.

This evaluation is a part of a more in-depth research study investigating the relationship between and integration of SQM and CSR, and its application in specific contexts.

Self‐assessment using the Business Excellence Model has been in place in Europe since 1990 as a means of obtaining competitive advantage. Describes the history, design and application of the model and self‐assessment in the context of the desire of all organizations to strive for excellence. Emphasizes is on self‐assessment but reference is made to the use of the model of self‐assessment to identify model organizations through the UK Quality Award (UKQA) and European Quality Award (EQA) processes.

Top management commitment is considered a significant factor in improvement programmes, and many papers have been written about the role of top management commitment in implementing a quality management system. However, not considering other management levels’ commitment, such as middle management, may lead to issues in achieving organisational development. Public organisations that work through vertical structures may face a lack of middle management commitment, which might have a negative impact on lower and non-management staff commitment to improvement programmes. In this regard, the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of middle management’s commitment towards improvement initiatives in public organisations.

Empirical research with a mixed-method design used semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire to explore the current practices of continuous improvement (CI) and examine employees’ views from different management levels of the implications of current improvements in a Saudi public service organisation.

The analysis indicated that the lower managers and non-management staff agree that, after the implementation of the quality management system, the organisation’s middle management showed a lack of commitment to that system. Moreover, this lack of commitment is recognised in the analysis of participants’ views of CI practices recorded in the questionnaire and interviews. This lack of commitment has caused poor employee commitment and thus a lack of problem solving in organisational departments. It is also responsible for a lack of employee involvement, the centralisation of decisions, deficiencies in terms of determining and applying training, inequality between employees and a lack of trust between employees and their managers. These issues could be managed and resolved through middle management and their commitment.

Increasing middle managers’ awareness of the importance of their commitment to improvement initiatives can have an impact on employees’ commitment towards improvement initiatives, especially in those public organisations that have vertical/hierarchical structures. The level of commitment towards the implementation of improvement programmes needs further in-depth analyses to identify which factors influence public organisation leaders’ commitment to improvement programmes.

The results of this study could motivate middle managers in public organisations to review their policies and to facilitate CI initiatives.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the negotiation and otherization of the regional representations of southern foodways in public restaurants within a larger urban cultural setting often seen as its cultural antithesis.

The method and approach is multifaceted, including content and historical analysis and participant observation. The literature review lays the foundation for the otherization of the South in the USA. The content analysis explores various media publications relevant to southern food restaurants and the qualitative analysis demonstrates the nuances of southern restaurants in New York City.

The literature and content analysis demonstrates the socio‐historical grounding for the otherization of the South and southern foodways. The qualitative research demonstrates how southern restaurants are constructed and otherized differently in New York City depending upon their local context and the participants who are primarily involved.

A larger sample of restaurants could provide a potentially more valid and nuanced analysis of the phenomena.

Most research on regional, subcultural differences in foodways occurs within the imagined boundaries of that respective region, but this paper explores the historical proliferation of restaurants and the meanings of the production and consumption of southern regional foods in these restaurants within another region.

In this chapter, my aim is to describe and analyse conceptually and provide direction for the identification, selection and use of assistive technologies (ATs) to support the education and development of young children with disabilities. The chapter discusses the quality of early intervention practices and the pragmatic role of ATs in delivering effective early intervention impacts. In making this case, the chapter draws upon Vygotsky's cultural-historical theory to illuminate how ATs can be selected and used effectively in schools to enable all young children to thrive in their learning and development in inclusive classrooms.

In an experimental setting, we investigate the impact of religious social identity on whistle-blowing. We hypothesize and find that individuals are less likely to perceive others in their religious group as being behaving unethically. However, we find that once individuals perceive wrongdoing, they are incrementally more likely to whistle-blow when the perpetrator is a member of their religious group.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of undertaking research on both participants and researcher.

Taking an auto/ethnographic approach, the paper provides a reflexive account of the impact of research on identity construction, especially in relation to the specific areas of the accounting profession and motherhood.

There are potential therapeutic effects of undertaking and participating in research.

The paper provides an analysis of a little considered area in qualitative research, namely the effects of the research on those involved.

The transition from graduate student to new faculty member can be an exciting and challenging period in an academic career. New faculty members must successfully balance service obligations, research demands, and teaching responsibilities. Numerous guides have been developed to assist new faculty members in developing their careers. This selective bibliography identifies sources that can assist both graduate students and new faculty members as they develop their academic career.

Presents 31 abstracts, edited by Johanthan Morris and Mike Reed, from the 2003 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference, held at Cardiff Business School in September 2003. The conference theme was “The end of management? managerial pasts, presents and futures”. Contributions covered, for example, the changing HR role, managing Kaizen, contradiction in organizational life, organizational archetypes, changing managerial work and gendering first‐time management roles. Case examples come from areas such as Mexico, South Africa, Australia, the USA, Canada and Turkey.